Shadow Of The Past
by demonicangel3
Summary: Dilandau has a daughter, will she live up to her fathers legacy or will she betray him by falling in to the arms of his enemy's son?
1. Angelic Introduction

Hiya, this story is part of my Dilandau forgiveness and adoration process ^.^ (he's a nice guy really) 

Rated PG mainly because I have no idea what to rate it.

Disclaimer; I no own Escaflowne, kapiesh?

------------------------Never Ending----------------------

The story continued on just as the eternal ebb and flow of the tide.  Although all the action seemingly subsided the people's lives and memories went on, it was almost conceited of us to believe that their experiences, pain, anguish, torture, fear and happiness were merely for our amusement.

            We saw it end as fit as a fairy tale should; the beautiful princess married the handsome knight, whilst her the other man which had been imposed on her did not leave heart broken but as a free man how learnt a lesson;  the angelic king fell in love with a mysterious lady from another planet and their love conquered all the tribulations that faced it, and the king's seemingly jealous companion actually held the seat of an overprotective sister; the villainous nation was defeated, and mass innocent blood shed was saved and the process of redemption began; the politicians, strategists and theologians of that war died;  the knights younger sister, no doubt a lady married a Fanalian lord residing in Fanalia under the ever watchful eye of her brother; but what of the misguided soldier what happened to him? His mysterious disappearance seemed a blessing of all of Gaea; after all he was evil wasn't he? Wasn't he?

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The uproar which one would rightfully expect when the young soldier changed in to the respectable knights young sister, never arrived.  Allen as well as all the gentry at the time thought it was best to keep it quiet and to pretend that Dilandau died in battle, slain by the hand of the teenage Fanalian king as an act of revenge.  Thus Celena and her family name would be cleared and the memories of the bitter war could be eradicated in the hope for peace.  

As for the young girl Celena, her only memories of her life as Dilandau came in the form of a dream, un-sequanced and hazy.  Despite the negative expectations held by her brother and all how knew, she did not become an outlandish undignified lady who preferred the sword to a sewing needle and trousers to a skirt; her experiences as the soldier had traumatised and kept her far away from that life as possible and even if she desired it, any chance of it occurring would be impossible as her body had been left so week after the war and inexperienced after its years of being dormant.  She was, as far as the large number of people who had heard of her were concerned, the perfect lady, slender, quiet and obedient; anything for her to forget life as a villain.  It was thought best for her at nineteen to marry a lord of Fanalia, a respected family friend, who was twenty-three years her senior.  She spent twenty-eight years of her married life locked up in a mansion on the forest skirting the city until her rich husband died leaving her with four boys and a girl who was second to youngest.

Her brother in this time had become the long awaited Prince of Austuria, marrying a then Princess and now Queen of Austuria, Millerna. The couple had three children, two girls –who Allen was determined to raise as ladies unlike their mother and the youngest a son –who Millerna spent her time coddling and Allen spent his time training.

As for King Van Slanzar De Fanel he married his sweet-heart Hitomi Kanzaki, who returned to Gaea as soon as she was granted her independence.  The two ruled over the beautiful kingdom of Fanalia, with one son and heir to the throne.

-------------------------------------------------------

Lady Celena continued to live in Fanalia even after the death of her husband with her children, Yuhei twenty-three, Sadhura and Tsuyoshi twins twenty, Hikari eighteen, being the only female child, and finally Sanosuke nine.  All of the boys had blonde hair and blue eyes like their mother and father and had troops of swooning girls awaiting hand and foot, the oldest Yuhei trying to imitate his uncle to whom he aspired by growing his hair to his waist and attempting to take the role of knight at the Austurian courts.  

However the young girl Hikari was a shock to most people as she resembled neither parent or even a relative, she had long below knee-length platinum hair which took her eighteen years of life to grow, Hikari had full naturally red lips and impossibly high, sculpted cheek-bones, this was accompanied by her cherry red eyes and deathly pale skin, so white she made her porcelain skinned mother seem tanned in comparison.  Her striking beauty, although a wonderful asset to her never failed to set her mother and uncle on alarm, the only person who she could have possibly inherited this from was a person who they would have liked to believe dead; Dilandau Albatou.

~Owari (for now)

What did you think? (Review) I probably will be more lax in my writing style in future chapters but I thought it was fitting for the prologue to sound like this. ^.^  I got the names from 'Mistakes in stories' by LSR-7 thanks. ^_^ 

-The backwards Angel.


	2. Evil Etiquette

Chapter 2 is up ^.^

-------------------------------- Evil Etiquette-----------------------

Celena looked up at the mansion she had called home for twenty eight years, and now finally at the death of her husband it was time for her to leave.  Her four boys stuck their head out of the carriage window whilst Hikari remained sulking in her carriage seat, her arms crossed over her chest and her nose stuck proudly up in the air in the opposite direction from her uncle who was sitting next to her.

'Now, now Hikari it's not very lady like to sulk now is it?' Allen said chiding her gently.

'Well I wouldn't be sulking if you stopped telling me how to behave like a lady and make me wear this which takes up half the room in the stuffy old carriage anyway.'  She pointed down at her red and white Austurian style dress with a square neckline which was brought together by a v-shape at the end; it just rode on the borders of modesty, being saved by the lace fringing it had around it.  The bottom of the dress however belled out slightly larger than an average Austurian dress as Allen had insisted on getting the largest hoped skirt under dress he could find making it difficult for Hikari to sit down.  The sleeves widened towards her hand, so when ever she tried to do anything there was excess fabric in the way rendering her helpless.  The carriage however was anything but small; it was able to fit four people per bench and had mahogany and cream interiors and a shiny blue and gold exterior.  Hikari, Allen and Yuhei sat on one bench in that order, Hikari's dress taking up room for two people, Allen there next to reprimand her every time she was behaving undignified and Yuhei who was content because he was sitting next to his idol.  Celena sat on the other bench with the two twins next to her and Sanosuke sitting proudly in her lap.

'The colours accentuate your eyes and your hair, which I have to say, is long enough to put mine to shame.' Allen said with a slight chuckle.

'I'm meant to be wearing black, I am in mourning after all, I stick out like a sore thumb in comparison to everyone else in their dreary gear.' Hikari yelled at Allen who remained calm, however trying his best to stifle a laugh. 

'And you can shut up Gaki.' Hikari spoke menacingly upon catching a smirk upon her younger brother's face.

'Hikari, don't speak to Sanosuke like that! Your mother may allow you to get away with things but that doesn't mean you can forget your place, you are a girl!' Replied Allen with anger rising in his voice, he swallowed and smiled returning to his calm demeanour 'As for the dress black isn't an ideal colour for courting the King's son.'

'I don't want to court King Van's son, last time I saw him he was extremely spotty, I couldn't even see his face it was just one giant spot and he couldn't even talk properly his voice was squeaky and then low.  I am not courting that; I could do so much better.' Hikari responded haughtily, her nose once more returning to the air.

'It's called Acne, his voice was breaking, you are lucky you didn't go through it your self, It's cleared up by now I saw him a month ago he's quite the handsome young lad just like his father, as proof he has a horde of girls chasing after him, and no you can't do any better then him he's the only male ruler old enough for you to marry.'  Allen gasped his lungs starved of oxygen after that long rant.

'My father has just died and you want to get me married so I can be part of your Schezar Gaea domination scheme.'

'You know you were never close to your father, you used to cry in his hands as a baby and as soon as you could run you ran away from his arms.  For heavens sake Hikari you spent hours trying to avoid him and you went five months without ever laying eyes on him once, and don't tell me you weren't trying to avoid him you lived together in the same house!.' Allen reprimanded his temper rising once more.

Every one in the carriage fell silent.  They all knew that Hikari hated their father for no apparent reason and it hurt them especially the twins as they had been so fond of him and they had loved him dearly before he died.  An awkward silence descended on the carriage, and all eyes fell on the now departing mansion, every one was sorrowful even Hikari who knew as soon as they left Van's palace for Austuria she would be under the ever watchful eye of her uncle.

'Anyway' Allen broke the silence, 'Never insult the Schezar Gaea domination scheme.'

Hikari laughed at her uncle's child like voice.

Allan was spurred on by her laughter.  'Seriously I have it all planned out, Yuhei, Sadhura and Tsuyoshi will marry the evil Ziabach pri…ur I mean Ziabach princesses and the Schezar's will have Zaibach, you of course are marrying Yusuke…'

At this remark Hikari 'hmphd'

'That makes you Queen of Fanalia, and I have Austuria; the whole of Gaea will fall at our feet.'

Everyone laughed at this remark including Celena who had been behaving like a statue.

'What about the Gaki…I mean Sanosuke?'

'Oh he can get off marrying a rich lady, I have one in mind actually, she's in Ziabach too but she's a baby now; I think she's a tad bit too young for courting yet.'

'Oh great your global domination means everyone marries beautiful people except for me!' Yuhei complained

'beauty's only skin deep.'

Hikari looked like Allen had just turned in to a frog, finding this impossible coming from Allen's mouth; she promptly raised her hand against his forehead to check his temperature.

'In that case the problem gets even worse, she's a real bitch.' Yuhei complained.

'Why are we going to the palace first? Why can't we go straight to Austuria? I want to see aunty Millerna.' Sanosuke complained knowing how his aunty doted on him.

'Ga…Sanosuke, don't you listen to a word, we can't Allen and Millerna have peace talks to attend to in Zaibach tomorrow and they last six weeks, mind you Allen will only spend the first week talking about peace and the rest of the time he'll try and get Yuhei, Sadhura and Tsuyoshi married to the evil princesses, he's not carrying around their pictures for fun you know!'

Sadhura and Tsuyoshi sighed in unison.

 'Anyway that would mean we go and sit in the castle alone for six weeks.  Allen seems to think however we are all porcelain dolls and break if we are alone so he arranged it so we stay with King Van for six weeks instead.  He also thinks we are so fragile he needs to accompany us to central Fanalia and stay for tonight to get us settled in; but he's actually most probably here so he can get me and Prince Yusuke off on the right foot and that I make the right impression on Queen Hitomi and King Van.'  Hikari finished looking smug.

'Hikari, I don't think of you as a porcelain doll at all!'

'Really? Are you sure because you sure had me fooled?'

'No, of course not, you are far too boisterous, outlandish undignified and are gravely in need of some manners. For a lady to be called a doll is a wonderful complement which you are not worthy of.'

'Sexist pig.' Hikari mumbled under her breath, unfortunately Yuhei heard this and she received a quick slap at the back of her head.

'We're here.' Tsuyoshi replied eager to get out of the family bickering.

'Allen look, twenty minute journey and we haven't broken yet.'

The seven stepped out of the carriage, Hikari being the last as she tripped over her dress whilst trying to get up.  Sadhura laughed when he saw the porter try to cope with all ten of Hikari's suitcases whilst the other God knows how many were redirected to Austuria.

'I'm sorry,' one of the palace guards greeted them, 'The king and Queen were expecting you to arrive in two hours time and are not here at present, would you like to take seat in the castle.' 

'Told you we would be to early Allen.'

'I know we would, I wanted to give you a quick etiquette lesson before hand.'

Hikari groaned.

-----------------------------------------------

Hikari jumped on the oak four poster bead in her new sleeping quarters.  The room was white and pink; the carpet was white whilst the curtains were pink with white pleats and they adorned the windows which were opposite the bed, which was in the middle of the wall where the door was, the bed covers were pink along with the pillows however there were a few diamond shape white pillows for decoration, there was an oak dresser with a chair as well as an oak wardrobe, in the corner of the room there was a door leading in to the en-suite bathroom.  Hikari sighed and threw her shoes on the floor collapsing on the bed glad for some peace which was quickly shattered by a knock on the door.

'Who is it?' Hikari said in between clenched teeth.

'Time for your lesson' Allen said in an all too cheery voice.

'Boy I can't wait until he goes.' She mumbled under her breath.

She grudgingly opened the door and let Allen in.

'Right first thing, do you know how you should curtsey when you see a rich noble man?' 

'Isn't that obvious?' Hikari curtseyed daintily with a smile on her face.

'No, wrong.'

'That's how everyone else curtseys.'

'But you're getting married to Yusuke.'

'I haven't even courted him yet and I don't intend to; and what pray tell was wrong with my curtsey?'

'I couldn't see any of your cleavage.'

'I should hope not! Mind you, one does not have to look very hard if they want to see a great deal with the dress you have given me.' Hikari blushed.

'The dress is teasing as well as the curtsey which I'm going to teach you know. Right curtsey and hold it.'

'Yey! Ballet lessons all over again.'

'Now stick your bent leg further to the right so you can go lower and I can see directly down your chest. Focus don't loose eye contact with me, now try to look seductive.'

'That's disgusting, you're my uncle!'

'Fine then imagine I'm Yusuke.'

'That's even worse.' Hikari mumbled.

'Don't talk about your fiancé that way…right that's the perfect curtsey, bordering on the lines of chastity.'

'Allen how do you know all this?'

'I have spent many a time with many a women.'

'Obviously.'

'How about eating?'

'Yes Allen I know what one of the twelve spoons, forks and knives are for what, I know how to use my napkin, I know not to slurp my soup and I definitely know not to eat with my mouth full!'

'No, no do you know who to eat seductively?'

Hikari slapped her forehead. 

'Right always play with your food at the entrance of your mouth before you eat it, but not with all foods and especially not with meat…'

So the lesson continued with how to be seductive at dinner, how to be seductive in conversation, how to sit seductively and how to get lost seductively, torturing poor Hikari to the brink of her sanity.

-------------------------- 1 hour later---------------------

'Right now that concludes how to drop a fork seductively and in fact the whole of 'Allen's how to behave seductive guide for dummies' any questions?'

'You bothered to name that? Wait no, *please* don't answer that.  Allen I still feel uncomfortable.'

'Wait was it the 'how to sprain your ankle seductively?' because it's hard to explain ideally I need to be able to demonstrate it to you.'

'No, everyone else is wearing black and I'm in colour.' Hikari sighed.

'Ah well your mother will have to stay in black obviously but I don't see why the boys have to. I will go and see what I can do.'

Allen darted off to round up the boys in his room.

~Owari 

Please review

-The backwards angel


	3. Reddened Rose

This is a really long chapter I thinks the action kicks in at the end of this chapter as well as the fluff ^.^ (there will be angst in the next chapter though.)

Disclaimer; who owns Escaflowne? Not me that's who.

**Reddened Rose **

-----------------------Allen's room---------------------------

'Right do you all know how important the next six weeks are for me…I mean your sister?' Allen said quickly.

'No, not this again' Tsuyoshi mumbled, and then sighed 'we've been listening to this for the whole coach journey and we don't want to hear it again, *please*.'

'Fine, fine, anyway you're not wearing black; it will make your sister look ridiculous.'  Allen spoke in matter-of-fact tone not bothering to check if they thought it would be alright.

'What! Just because she's going to get married doesn't mean our fathers not dead, we loved him unlike her.' Sadhura said in a voice bordering anger; he had always been the more vocal of the two twins.

'I'm not getting married' they all turned around hearing a feminine hiss from the closed door.  Allen looked royally peeved, and walked over to the door and opened it in a huff.

'It's not very ladylike to eavesdrop.' 

'Oh dear lord am I ever going to hear the end of this?' Hikari sighed as she was being marched back to her room and threatened to be locked in if she didn't stay put.  

Allen walked back in the room slightly annoyed by the interruption.

'Stop complaining you two, and Gaki pay attention.  This is important for our family we can't go around marrying just anyone, we have always been influential in matters concerning Gaea and I hope we continue to do so.'  Yuhei looked up for praise from his uncle, who merely smiled at the comment.  'Allen, there is one problem' he paused 'we only brought black.'

Allen slapped his forehead. 'You're going to have to borrow my clothes then.' Allen said with a smile on his face thinking that they most be counting their lucky stars for his good fashion sense.

Tsuyoshi was darting his head around the room, frantically looking for a window to jump out of.  Sadhura was swearing under his breath.  Yuhei looked like he had reached the pot of gold under the rainbow.  Sanosuke was as usual paying no attention what so ever and was jumping up and down on Allen's bed.

'So, I…um, we get to wear clothes you wore?' Yuhei asked trying not to sound too excited.

'You're really sad, you know that don't you?' Sadhura said shaking his head in dismay.

'Yes, I have worn them' Allen said looking smug thinking himself a wonderful idol.

Tsuyoshi was now eyeing the new found window with scary enthusiasm; and as usual Sanosuke was still jumping on the bed.   

'Um, so we get to wear the royal colours of Austuria then.' Yuhei said examining Allen's usual blue, gold and white uniform.

'No, only knights and royal men of Austuria can wear that; you are going to have to wear my casual clothes.'

After ten minutes of Allen darting around in the suitcase he dropped a pile of clothes on his bed and threw the suitcase back on top of the wardrobe.

'Allen you wear lace white gloves, diamond and ruby necklaces and a fan when you dress casually?' Tsuyoshi said with his back now against the window looking very worried.

'No baka that's for your sister.' Allen left the boys in the room to change and went to Hikari's room, next door.

-------------------------Hikari's Room--------------------

Hikari had opened her balcony windows and was leaning over the balcony looking at the garden which skirted around a large pond in the centre.  She sighed as she took in the scent of the jasmine which was intermingled with the honeysuckle.  She leant over to reach a single white flower which had climbed the trelace up to her window, which as she noticed, while leaning with one foot in the air was incredibly far up from the ground; so high she couldn't even make out the frantic servants features. Hikari gasped as she tripped over her skirt whilst trying to reach the bloom and prepared herself for certain death until she felt two arms lace around her waist. 

'We wouldn't want you to die before you have even met your husband now would we?'  Allen chided gently.

Hikari sighed in defeat, when would her uncle get it in to his head that she didn't want to court Yusuke? 'I would have been fine if I wasn't wearing this infernal dress! I don't dislike wearing dresses but Allen the hoop for this dress is ridiculously large, and It's not very gentlemanly –like to enter a ladies room without knocking.' Hikari changed the topic seeing a way to beat her uncle in his own game.

'But I didn't enter a ladies room; I entered a foolish girl's room and just saved her ungrateful life.' Allen replied smugly and as usual having the last say in the matter.

'What do you want Allen?' Hikari asked hotly.

'I came to give you these' Allen handed Hikari the gloves fan and necklace.  Hikari completely ignored the gloves and the fan and dove for the necklace.

'Wow Allen it's beautiful, is it for me, can I keep it?'  Hikari said eyes wide examining the heart shape pendant which was incrusted with rubies with diamonds around the edge, it hung on a silver chain.

Allen laughed quietly, 'Yes it is, think of it as an early engagement present and you'll get an even bigger and even more expensive one if you pull this off. Here let me put it on for you.' 

Hikari opened her mouth to argue that she could do it herself and decided against it.  She placed her hand behind her neck and hooked away her long thick silver hair way from the back of her neck.  As soon as Allen had placed the necklace around her neck she had immediately ran off towards her dressing table mirror, despite Allen's half-hearted protests against running, to inspect how it looked on her.

'Wow, it's gorgeous.' She said excitedly a bright smile flashing across her lips, 'You have to thank aunty Millerna for this.' She said squeezing Allen in a hug.   

'I think that has to be the nicest thing you have said to me all day, Hikari.'

'Well, don't get used to it!' She mocked playfully.

'Well as you can see the gloves and the fan are also for you, so I suggest you put them on.  Also I would tie your hair up before you greet you-know-who.'

Hikari smiled back, she was far too happy to complain and did as her retreating uncle told her to.

----------------------Allen's Room-----------------------

'Right let see what you look like.' Allen said whilst entering the room viewing the boys all clad in black leather trousers, a white shirt and an imperial purple sash.  He went down the line of boys one by one. 

'Yuhei, you look almost as good as I do in those clothes.'  Yuhei smiled at Allen in response to that remark and the boy that is a mirror image of his uncle went back to grooming his hair in the mirror, every now and then looking down at his rear.

'Sadhura put your sash back on.' Allen said sternly to the older of the two twins who also had the longest hair out of the two that fell down to his chin and was more golden in colour than his older brother but had the same cerulean blue eyes. 

'Allen, it's purple; I'll look like a girl.' He protested 

'Put it on.' Allen replied with a menacing look on his face.

'Tsuyoshi, I think it would do you good to button up your shirt so all the ladies in the court don't swoon.' Allen added with a smirk on his face.  The younger twin had a face identical to his brother but refused to sport the same 'feminine' hair style and wore a crew cut with blonde bangs falling over his face, making eye contact with the boy difficult.  He started to button up the previously undone shirt which revealed some of his well defined chest, but not all of it as the shirt was tucked into his sash preventing it from flying open.  As his uncle passed him to walk over to Sanosuke he cursed silent insults about having to wear leather trousers.

'Um…' Allen didn't say much as he walked over to Sanosuke as he was obviously drowning in the clothes that were far to large for him, and the ends of the leather trousers and shirt had been rolled up to allow movement of his hands and feet.  'Well maybe you should wear black, *but* I am expecting you to wear the sash.' Allen said in a slightly bewildered manner.

After Sanosuke had finally got ready the boys marched out of the room in a single line and headed for Hikari's room to escort her down to the waiting room to greet the king and queen who would be arriving any minute now.  Already walking two steps to the next room the uniformed boys had received their first set of Raucous giggles by the young maids, bringing a grin to their faces. Allen knocked on the door hand already on the handle waiting to come in.

'Hikari' He called when there was no response. 'Hikari we are coming in alright?' 

The former knight opened the door in a slight hurry and paced around the room and inside the bathroom checking for and signs of the young lady.  Then much to the confusion of the other boys he stuck his head outside the balcony window and sighed in relief after inspecting the floor beneath, 'She's still alive.' All the boys looked even more confused.

'Stupid girl, I told her to stay put.' Allen said angrily grabbing her neglected fan and making his way to the waiting room hoping she would turn up to greet the king.

-----------------------Palace Gardens------------------

Hikari was glad to be free of her resting quarters, it wasn't that they weren't nice it was just that the large window she had overlooking the lake demanded her to take a closer look.  The large blue lake was surrounded by a lacing metal face less than a foot away from the ground; it had four gaps in it, and she guessed that it could be for people who wished to bathe in it as it was certainly large enough, but then decided against it when she realised it was probably uncivilised to go swimming in lakes.

'It is a very beautiful lake, isn't it?' A husky voice from behind Hikari came, shocking the girl to the brink of death, she didn't know why but she felt like a child who had just been caught stealing a cookie out of a cookie jar.  Hikari turned around in a flurry, but much to her embarrassment her foot got caught in the swirling fabric of the dress sending her flying backwards in to the lake, when for a second time that day a pair of strong arms caught her from sudden doom.

'I apologise, I'm not usually such a klutz, but this dress is so large it gets in the way of everything, I think it's the third time I've tripped today, once while trying to get the beautiful flowers from the trelace outside my window, I would have died if it weren't for my uncle Allen who brought me this dress anyway, I swear he's trying to kill me with all his etiquette lessons…and I'm rambling aren't I?' Hikari said nervously, a blush quickly rising on her face.  For some bizarre reason the green eyed black haired tanned skin boy made her very self conscious and she started to fidget and then realised that she was still in his arms.  

The boy released his arms from around her waist when he realised that she realised that he was still holding her around the waist. 'No you weren't rambling I was rather enjoying the conversation.' He said awkwardly, flustering at the sight of the beautiful girl in front of him. 'Please continue.'  

'Are you sure?' Hikari asked hastily slightly bewildered by his request.

'Very' he said looking up in her eyes, and raising her hand for her to hook on to so they could walk through the gardens.

'Well anyway I'm here to stay for six weeks, my uncle prince Allen of Austuria seems to think we can't handle six weeks on our own without a strong male figure, even though I have four brothers three over the age of twenty so he asked king Van If we could stay with him until his wife and he return from a peace conference in Ziabach.  He really seems to think women can't do anything, he treats my mother and I like we are made of glass and a tiny wind could break us.  In fact he flew over from Austuria to make sure we got settled in for the day.'  Hikari said with as few breaths as possible surveying the scenery.

Her handsome companion laughed slightly 'Sounds quite nice to me.'

'You must be crazy.  He's so over protective I can barely do anything and what I can do he always reprimands by saying its un-lady-like.  I just had an hour long lesson on etiquette and how to blink seductively.' She demonstrated to him laughing, 'you see he wants me to court Yusuke, he even acts like we are already married.'

'Why do you sound so sad? I hear millions of girls are dying for the chance.' He smirked

'Well I told him it's because I don't think he looks nice, which he did when I last saw him, but that's not the real reason.  I don't believe in courting some one for their status but by what kind of person they are; Of course I can't tell Allen this he would of think I picked up from the un-lady-like women with brains.' For the first time Hikari seemed dismayed in his presence.

--------------------------Waiting room------------------------------

'Where is that troublesome girl?' Allen fumed which was quickly accompanied by a sigh from Celena.  He paced backwards and forwards in the room.  'Your majesty' Allen said while passing the newly arrived king and Queen bowing followed by the rest of his family in the room.  

'I don't think you can call me that anymore now you are prince of Austuria, Allen, anyway we are all friends here so I don't want any of you to bow.' Van said confidently.

'Nice to see you again Celena.' Hitomi said walking directly over to Celena embracing her.  Celena looked slightly uncomfortable as this is not what she was used to from people of nobility.

'These must be the boys.' Van smiled shaking their hands

'They've grown since I saw them last, Yuhei's hair is longer than last time, the twins must have a hard time fighting off girls, owwww Sanosuke last time I saw you, well you were in your mothers arms.' She said pulling his cheek.

Van straightened his posture and looked more sombre, 'I'm very sorry for your loss Celena.' Celena remained mute and smiled as a reply but it was clear she was still sad from the death of her husband as her eyes glistened with tears; true she never loved him and she had even found him irritating when they married but they had grown to become close friends. 

Hitomi quickly changed the subject not wanting her old friend to be reduced to tears, 'last time I checked you had an astonishingly beautiful young woman, where is Hikari.' Celena smiled at the release but still continued to remain silent.

'Well um,' Allen looked visibly uncomfortable, 'She should be here any time soon.' Van laughed as he saw Allen fidget with the lace fan in his hand.

----------------------------Palace Garden-----------------------------

'It doesn't suit you to frown' The young man said and reached over to pluck a fiery read lily from his right and placed it above her ear, he reached for her hand kissed it once then bowed his forest green eyes never loosing contact with her red ones; 'I have an engagement to attend to, see you later.' He said running off.

'Wait I never caught your name.' She said to her self as she realised he was out of hearing distance. Hikari stood there dreamy eyed and took the lily out of her hair and twirled it in between her two fingers. She sighed gently as she recollected his arms around her waist.  She brushed her fingers against the bushes she saw him brush his fingers against earlier and smelt the flower in her hand and returned it back to where he had placed it, behind her ear.  

'Hikari, baka.'  Tsuyoshi said panting and lent his arms on his knees gasping for breath, 'I've been looking for you everywhere, and the king and Queen are here, Allen is really angry with you.'

'I didn't know you cared that I went missing.' She smirked.

'*I* don't' He said harshly eyes void of any emotion.  He grabbed Hikari's arm and dragged her whilst running towards the dining room, 'Baka, we're having dinner now.'

Hikari tried to hold back the sobs in her throat, she was being playful towards him but she knew he was serious when he said he didn't care about her.

----------------------------Dining Room------------------------------

'I found her' Tsuyoshi announced.

'I'm very sorry, your majesties that I am late.'  Hikari curtseyed lightly knowing now was not the time to try to be 'seductive' and kept her head bowed down not wanting to face the angry eyes that were staring at her at the table. 

'Do try not to do it again Hikari, Where were you? We were all worried for your safety.' Allen said trying to sound concerned but his eyes gave him away he was furious, Hikari looked up once in his direction and at his gaze she looked back down again not wanting to see the similar looks she would probably be facing from her brothers.

'I was in the garden and I lost track of time, I know I shouldn't of worried you by leaving my room without permission, I won't do it again.' She knew none of them were worried for her, they were worried about the displeasure of the king and Queen, just as she knew they didn't care for her; how could they when she had shut them out of her life and the ones she let in, her mother and Allen were afraid of her and she never knew what she did to cause such hostility towards her; it was like that ever since she could remember.  Allen stood up and gave her a hug to try and make it seem as if he was worried but took the opportunity to hit her in the gut with her fan that he had been carrying all day.  I few tears escaped from her eyes; not because it hurt, she didn't even feel any pain; it was the gesture that hurt her hurt.

'She shouldn't be sorry I sidetracked her by trying to make conversation.' 

Hikari looked up to see the source of the voice and tried not to look visibly shocked when she saw him.

'Prince Yusuke, she should have known better than to leave her room in the first place,' Sadhura said angrily his gaze unmoved from her direction.

Hikari tried her best to fight the blush rising on her cheeks, she couldn't believe that was Yusuke, he had changed so much! She blushed even more when she remembered what she told him earlier.  'Prince Yusuke, nice to see you again' She curtseyed reasonably low and blushed when she saw him smirk.

'Why don't you take I seat in between your mother and I' Allen chirped; the seat she noticed was opposite Yusuke.

Owari

Please review

-The Backwards Angel


	4. Food equals Romance

Hi it's me again, (duh!) Thank you to the lovely people who reviewed, It does wonders for my self esteem –so if anyone else has anything they have to say about the fic just click the review button at the bottom.

Disclaimer; - I've only done this a few times and I'm already getting sick of it. I do not own Escaflowne I'm not even in possession of any esca merchandise o.k.?

Is this chapter fluff? I don't think so, I think it my have a few strands of fluff in it but not enough for it to be deemed fluffy (I think) I was going to add the really big angsty chunk of angst in this chapter but I decided to let you wait a bit more; it's too soon but can you see it creeping in?

**Food equals Romance**

Hikari walked over to her seat, still upset about her family's hostility towards her but at the same time she felt like a giddy school girl at the sight of Yusuke; she had to mentally slap herself to remember that this was the same Yusuke that she spent ages trying to avoid courting.  She did another curtsey as she stepped up towards the king and the Queen and then sat down at her seat.  Hikari quickly forgot the glares she was receiving when she sat opposite Yusuke; blushing wildly at his grins. This obviously didn't go unnoticed as Allen was smiling to himself and Hitomi and Van were exchanging knowing glances.

Yusuke took the opportunity to take a closer look at the girl with such a rare beauty. She had these bright red crimson eyes with a dark scarlet ring around it, they looked remarkably like Vino especially as they were gleaming from recently shed tears, he certainly could get drunk on them.  Her hair was strung up in a high ponytail and the ends were curled in to ringlets, his eyes followed the ringlets down to her lap were she had placed her hair to avoid sitting on it.  His eyes wandered back up at her face and began to examine the dress she was wearing; the first thing he noticed was that there was a lack of dress in a certain area, where his eyes seemed to linger for a remarkably long time.

Hikari looked up towards Yusuke's direction; his was gazing at something pretty raptly; she followed his stare down to the lace fringing at her dress and immediately drew out her fan over her bust blushing furiously.

She wasn't the only one to go red; Yusuke also went a light shade of pink and suddenly became over interested in his soup.  Allen couldn't help himself chuckling out loud alerting the whole table of the situation, causing further embarrassment to the two teenagers who were now looking in two separate directions. Hikari was gently fanning her blush, actually thankful for what she once cursed a useless accessory.  

Now Yusuke was finally looking away from her she took the time to examine what he looked like.  She noticed that he did look a great deal like his father except for his skin seemed to have a golden aurora to it and he had remarkably deep green eyes; forest green just like Fanalia it's hard to imagine without seeing him, but he looked like his country embodied.  He was dressed completely in black; he wore matt black trousers as well as a black shirt with the top two buttons undone making him look sexy without even revealing anything.  She looked back up at his head and examined his hair; it was a sooty black colour and fell over his eyes in the form of bangs adding a mysterious air to him.  Hikari didn't know why but she wanted to reach out brush them away from his face, to feel them in her hands she imagined them being soft like silk.  She felt another blush rise to her face as he caught her staring at him sending them back to looking in opposite directions.

When finally the table settled and conversation broke between everyone except the two of them, Hikari attempted to eat the soup; unfortunately this prove to be quite a dilemma as her sleeves insisted in take a bath in the tomato coloured liquid. She looked over to Allen for help who simply deliberately knocked her spoon off the table; Hikari interpreted this to mean 'how to be seductive while picking up a spoon'.  She tousled a few of her locks in the air when bending down to pick up the spoon and tried to act helpless, all as Allen had previously advised.  

'Men must have seriously deflated egos if they need women to act helpless to make themselves feel strong.'  Hikari muttered under her breath; which received a gentle kick from Allen who obviously heard this.  While Hikari was under the table she noticed that Yusuke was waving a napkin and a pen in her direction, she quickly picked it up along with the spoon and sat back down again.  

When no one was looking she unfolded the napkin in her lap and smiled in Yusuke's direction when she read his message; 'don't worry you don't have to act helpless to try to seduce me' she laughed even more when she realised that this could be interpreted in two ways. 

'Don't laugh to yourself otherwise they will think you've gone insane' Allen muttered in between clenched teeth.  Hikari quickly showed Allen the note to avoid getting in trouble and he sighed saying in a defeated tone, 'to think I spent all that wasted time on you.' However his sigh quickly turned in to a grin as he realised his plan was going on track even if Hikari did it her own way.

So the dinner continued with Sanosuke dropping bits of torn up napkin in his soup, the twins still glaring at Hikari, Yuhei and Allen were still dominating the conversation at the table with the king and Queen about knights in Austuria, Celena of course was still denying the fact she could speak, while the two love sick teens passed various napkin written notes under the table.

--------------------------------------------------------

Dinner had finally finished and Allen's family assembled outside to see him leave to Austuria; Yuhei looking rather sad from the loss of company and Hikari trying her best to stop grinning madly at his long awaited departure.  

Hikari ran back in the castle eager to meet Yusuke running past her younger three brothers as she went.  As she ran past the line of boys Sadhura grabbed her wrist and pulled her sharply in his direction and slapped her as hard as he could possibly muster across her face and then walked off.  Hikari grabbed her red cheek and ran straight for   her room, her thin body convulsing with sobs.  She fumbled with the key for her room at the top of the door frame dropping it on the floor as she tried to grasp it.  She immediately fell on her knees and began to cry hysterically.

Yusuke was grinning madly as he looked down at the napkin with scrawled messages written all over it in black ink, he lifted it to smell the fragrance of crushed roses that Hikari had left behind on it.  He walked up to her room, every now and then speeding up from his normal pace due to excitement.  When he turned the corner he felt a sharp pain in his chest as he saw Hikari desperately trying to insert the key in the hole with tears streaming down her face.  He stopped for a while looking pained, as the sight of her distraught made his heart wither in his chest, with out any more haste he ran towards the slumping figure and held her close to his chest her tears soaking his black shirt.

He made soft lulling noises at the girl who he was cradling protectively in his arms; he turned around at the whispering of the maids and decided it was best to take Hikari in to her room rather than standing idly in the hallway.  He led Hikari to the bed and shut the balcony windows preventing any cold drafts from entering the room.  He walked over to Hikari whose tears had subsided and was cursing her self for crying out aloud. He sat down on the bed next to her and wiped away the last few tears from her cheek and placed a chaste kiss on her forehead as she moved away a few strands of silver hair from her face.  She snivelled and leant her head against his chest and he stroked her back gently with his hand.

Hikari's brows were knotted in confusion as she couldn't under stand why she felt so safe in his arms; it was like nothing could hurt her.  She had only known him for a day and she was sure she was falling head over heals for him, a completely alien experience to her as it usually worked in the reverse when it came to her.  After much debating internally she decided that she quite liked this foreign experience and let her self relax in his warm embrace.

Now Hikari seemed relax his pain also soothed.  He still didn't understand why she went from a pleasant disposition to hysterics; the red mark across her cheek didn't go unnoticed by him and he guessed she had been slapped; it hurt him to think about her pain and he felt inexplicable anger rage within him thinking about who caused it.  Yusuke tried his best to remain composed and quickly lost all train of thoughts in her soft breathing.

The two of them sat their quietly on the bed each wondering if the other felt the same way about them.

After a few moments Hikari grudgingly sat up from leaning against his shirt and kissed him gently on the cheek 'Thank you Yusuke,' she said quietly which was quickly followed by a yawn.

Yusuke got up slightly reluctantly and made his way out of the door his gaze never leaving hers.  He lent on the door he shut behind him and walked off to his room with new vigour.

Hikari smiled as she smelt her hands, she could smell him on her; he smelt warm, she didn't know how he did but he gave off a smoky musky fragrance that reminded you of wood cottages on the forest and lying on fur rugs next to the fire holding hands with the one you love and kissing; Hikari decided she would stop her thoughts there not wanting her mind to stray any further.  She removed her clothes and necklace slipped in to her negligee and went to bed.  

Thinking of him made her forget Sadhura and Tsuyoshi, thinking of him made her forget everything.

-------------------Hitomi and Van's bedroom--------------

The couple lay together in each others arms in the four poster bed.

'Van don't you think they made a cute couple? Kind of reminds me of us when we were that age, don't you think?'

'Yeah, except for I didn't look like a tyrannous villain who burnt down the town you were ruling over.'

'You can't hold that against her, just because she looks like Dilandau doesn't mean she should be treated like him; she gets enough of that from Allen and Celena.'

'I wasn't holding it against her, I was just saying it is a really freaky coincidence that the girl that was once Dilandau Albatou has a daughter that turns up looking exactly like him; and how do Allen and Celena treat her?'

'Can't you see? They treat her as if she were different; they are always on guard with her and anything outlandish she does they expect it to be Dilandau's fault, they don't mean to but they treat her like they expect her to turn in to him.'

'I was never blessed with intuitiveness, that's your frontier…he's flying.'

'Huh?'

'Yusuke's flying.'

'How do you know?'

'I can just feel it.'

--------------------------------------

Hikari woke up with the scent of jasmine invading the air.  She quietly tip-toed out of bed and stretched, her body silhouetted next to the curtains that were glowing with the sunlight they kept veiled behind them.  She un-drew her balcony curtains and a smile crept to her lips and she leant her hands against the glass balcony window in a child like fashion.  The whole of her balcony was filled with small white flowers that once made there way up the trelace by her window, in the middle was a fiery orange lily; the same kind Yusuke had given her yesterday.

~Owari

Please review ^.^

-The backwards angel (-why do I bother to write that at the end of every chapter, you get the point that I'm a backwards angel now don't you? I must stop doing that.)


	5. Hikari's History

I moved up the rating to PG13 for violence in later scenes- It probably could have stayed the same but It's better to be safe than sorry (never thought I would say that.)

Disclaimer; I'm too young to own escaflowne, I'm still in secondary school, I haven't even hit 15 yet, I'm too young to get a job other than 'paper girl' and the boy down the road nicked that (grrr evil boy down the road.)

Fluff? Angst? I'm not really sure

I love all you reviewers^-^ reading your reviews makes me happy because I know people actually bother to read the stories I write, thanks ^-^

O.k. recap on names (I'm not going to even bother to explain the original cast of Escaflowne or Hikari or Yusuke-.-)

Yuhei –her eldest brother 

Tsuyoshi + Sadhura –twins both 20 

Sanosuke/ Gaki (brat)-the youngest one (9)

**Hikari's History**

Hikari giggled child-likely as she swung open the balcony doors revealing the small white flowers.  She lent over the balcony her silver hair cascading down the side looking for any trace of Yusuke who she was sure had put the flowers there.  She couldn't stop herself from laughing as she scanned the garden below; she thought that if she looked at herself now as she was only two days ago she would have said she was pathetic, but she couldn't help the surge of emotions bubbling within her.  Yusuke made her feel so excited, so alive he made her forget all her troubles her family, and she had known him only for a day; he was an even better charmer than Allen.  She giggled and gave up her search for the boy making sure she would thank him later.  She bent down and scooped up the tiny flowers in her arms and placed them on her bed.  

Hikari looked in every direction but up, why would she have reason to? Above her the young prince smiled at the girls reaction, then left as she retreated away from her balcony, arms laden full of flowers.

After minutes of rambling through her suitcase she had found the perfect dress to wear. It was again an Austurian style dress, like all her dresses as they were all sent by Allen but not as elaborate as the one she wore yesterday.  It was plain white and had an orange corset with long tassels at the end of the thread that was used to tighten the corset.  She hated it the first time she saw it but then found it looked quite nice when worn especially with orange accessories to tie it together; however her main reason for wearing the dress was so she could wear something that matched the flowers that Yusuke gave her so she could braid them in her hair.  

An hour later after the usual morning essential duties Hikari was ready to go to breakfast.  She smoothed out the creases in her dress and rubbed the oil on her lips together to add a shine.  Her long hair had been tied in to two French plaits on either side of her head and in each little twist of the plait she had inserted a white flower and again the orange lily took pride of place behind her ear.  She smiled happily as she heard a knock on the door; no doubt someone to escort her to breakfast -to escort her to Yusuke.  

Her smile broadened further as she opened the door to see Yusuke as her escort; wearing a white shirt and tanned trousers, both of which brought out the golden glow of his skin.  Instinctively Hikari threw her arms around his neck squeezing him a tight hug.  She drew back slightly, once again blushing out of embarrassment at her outburst. Yusuke smirked at her antics.

'Thank you for the flowers.' She said now in a more reserved manner.  She looked down at the floor unable to meet his powerful stare so instead tried to avoid it.

'How did you know the flowers were from me?' He was still amused, the smirk still on his face.  He found her bashfulness cute and wanted to see how she managed to escape awkwardness from this question.  He didn't know why but seeing her like this seemed to make him burn inside.

'I didn't, it was either that or I have a stalker who knows the exact flowers that you know I like and conveniently turns up while we're courting.'  Hikari said still unable to face his teasing smile. 

'So we're courting now are we?'  If possible his smile became more mischievous 'unless I was mistaken I thought you didn't want to court me.'

Hikari's blush had transformed to a deep shade of scarlet; she had hoped to the heavens that he had forgotten that conversation and prayed for a quick release.  Then realizing nothing was going to happen she tried to fathom a reply and found she could only criticize the last one she made; why did she tell him they had been courting?  This she found only made her blush deepen further more making it look as if some had crushed many red rose petals along her cheek.

Yusuke seeing her awkward; as fun as it was torturing her, decided to give the poor girl a break and held out his hand ready to accompany her to breakfast.  Hikari gratefully took his hand glad for an escape; still however unable to make eye contact with him.  

The two walked down the hallway in a relaxing silence, each appreciating each others company, each reveling in the sanctity of the moment.

'Any way you deceived me.' Hikari said a smile playing her lips, 'You pretended you weren't you.'  She was determined to beat him in his own game.

'I didn't deceive you; you just didn't ask my name so I didn't tell you.' His gloating smirk replaying itself on his lips.

Hikari gave an exasperated sigh; 'That's like saying, if you don't ask me to tell you the information I know about your best friend dying I won't tell you.  It's a bit ridiculous isn't it?'

'And you're not at all over dramatizing the situation.'

Hikari was geared to continue their passionate debate but while opening her mouth realized there was nothing she could say and let out an exasperated sigh blowing the silver lock of hair away from her face.  She decided that she would calm herself before she got too worked up.

'Fine you win.' She said in a defeated tone throwing her hands in the air as a mock surrender.

'I always win.' Yusuke replied in that oh-so-annoying tone of his.

Hikari gave him a suspicious look and raising her eye brows quickly and rolled her eyes.  She gasped silently as Yusuke brushed away the rebellious lock of hair that had fallen over her face.  He took the opportunity to kiss her gently on the lips his tongue gently stroking hers and intertwining with it in a passionate dance.  Finally he broke away with the same smirk on his face, only softer and no-longer mocking.

'W...w…what was that for?' Hikari stuttered regaining her senses.

'For being you.'

Hikari smiled eyes once more facing the carpet, a blush creeping its way to her face. He laced his fingers within hers the rest of the journey to breakfast in a serene silence.

-------------------------------------------------

The rest of the day remained rather uneventful.  After breakfast Van, Hitomi and Yusuke had to go and open Fanalia's first hospital; and as usual none of her brothers were willing to accompany her outside the palace grounds, so instead she remained indoors and started to unpack and position her things in her temporary room.  Even dinner proved to be boring as the three still hadn't returned back to the palace; so Hikari remained bored for the passing of that day.

---------------------------------------------

Hikari had changed in to her black negligee and as usual had resumed her position at the balcony.  Everything below was silent; the palace had retired for the night.  Hikari left her room eager to explore the gardens in the beauty of the night.

She took a deep breath and absorbed her peaceful surroundings.  The lake rippled slowly causing its reflection of the moon and its surrounding candles to waver.  The flowers had closed over themselves hiding from the cold winter air.  Hikari made her way to the outskirts of the garden which was no longer ornate with coloured flowers and shaped hedges but an expanse of grass.  She stood in the middle and watched the grass quiver in the wind causing the shine of the moon to bounce along the surface like waves.  She felt a shiver run down her spine and shook it off.

Yusuke watched her; she wore a black plain silk sleeveless negligee that fell down to her knees and her hair was worn loose and tossed wildly in the wind.  He saw her so peaceful and at home with nature; he saw her free.

Hikari began to shiver in the cold winter air when she felt two warm arms holding her protectively around the waist.  She didn't have to ask who it was she already knew.  His hot breath sent a chill up her spine.  Watching her shiver he instinctively drew her closer and rested his head on the crook of her neck.

'How did you know I was here?'

'I saw it in a vision'

'Oh.'

Again there was silence between them; again there was peace.  It was never awkward: It was always comforting.

Finally when the night hung heavy in the air the two made their separate ways to their own room, both reluctant to leave due to the loss of company.

Hikari made her way through the long stretch of corridors to her room when she saw a slightly tipsy half dressed maid stumble out of Tsuyoshi's room.  She went through the door in to the room behind her trying to avoid trouble from her older brother.  She sighed behind the close door; she felt sorry for that girl, all of her brothers had away with women although Yuhei had an obligation as a trainee knight to be chivalrous –which he was, even though he never tried to stop Sadhura and Tsuyoshi from behaving shamelessly; after all they had no such commitment holding them back.

'Hikari,' she heard a smooth male voice say; she looked up to face the speaker even though she already knew who it was.

-------------------------Flashback------------------------

Another day passed like every other day in Hikari's life; spent hiding from her father.   When she wasn't with him or near him nobody could quash her spirit; at home away from prying eyes she spent the day as her uncle put it 'in the mind of a boy'; she preferred to use the word free.  She was free from the restricting dresses, the manners, the sewing, and the confining life-style of a lady.  Instead she wore trousers like a boy, climbed trees like a boy, stole her brothers' archery and swords and sparred like a boy, her hunger for adventure was insatiable.  She didn't dislike the dresses or the balls she just hated it's accompaniment of aristocratic society, she was definitely a girl only her spirit hadn't been squashed with a corset.

However just as she spent every day of her life avoiding him she had to spend those days avoiding her family.  She had put up barriers for her own protection only to find that she had cut herself off from the world and was now alone; when she needed the help it was never there it was always on the other side with him, her 'father.'

Unfortunately she couldn't spend every day away from him and every day she spent with him she craved for death; only she had promised herself he wouldn't kill her spirit, only then would she lose; so she spent these days trying to persevere through hell.

Her father had hated her.  He called her a slut, a bitch and a whore when she was only five; she never understood why.  Only her mother knew; her mother didn't say anything after all she was the perfect wife, mute, she pretended to be oblivious like the rest of the world, not even her brothers knew; if they did perhaps the current situation would be different.  She was pushed away from her father and his life and as a result was sectioned away from her family.  She was always the subject of his verbal abuse and when it became physical she hid behind her mother's leg; she would always save her –until she was nine.  Her mother became heavily pregnant with Sanosuke and eventually gave birth; she was so busy with the youngest she could no longer save Hikari from the insults and the constant beating from her 'father' she had to lock her self away from her life, she became a different person no one knew about, they had tried to care but never understood why she would always retreat away from their advances, their love.  Needless to say as years flew by; they gave up and Hikari lost the bond she had with them; everyone became a stranger, all her love, passion and affection was devoted to her hobbies and nature.  She became accustomed to the solitude that saved her from his wrath.

Hikari hit adolescence, her body changed and curved; she blossomed in to a young girl of extreme beauty.  This didn't earn love from her father only more abuse; and rape.  When he was alone with her he said she had to 'pay her own way' and he gave in to his temptation scarring the girl for life.  Hikari hated herself, hated her beauty, if she was free from it then she wouldn't have to endure the suffering from her father; she, however, couldn't change the way she was made.

Her spirit survived his tortures although in some days you could see her eyes becoming hollow.  The outside world who knew nothing, thought of her as rebellious tom boy who didn't deserve the life of a lady; her family barely remembered her at all, there only fleeting memory of her was, that she ran away from their arms as a child and that she locked herself away from them: they didn't know she had no other choice.

Celena had always suspected that he hit the girl; after all he knew of Dilandau and he knew this girl was Dilandau's child not his, he didn't know how it was possible just that it was.  He had always complained about having a bastard girl living under his roof.  Celena however never suspected the agonizing rape she would have to go through as well; no one knew that she had lost her innocence as a child, until recently.

The memory was still fresh in all of their minds, only five weeks had passed.  Only five weeks when her father came home in a drunken slur; something he never did.  The alcohol dulled his senses and as he tried to rape the girl he forgot his usual custom of tying her up with a rope and gagging her mouth.  This left Hikari able to fight back and able to scream in agony as he hit her with a broken bottle of wine for resisting.  Hearing the commotion the family and Allen ran upstairs to witness the scene.  The men lay back shocked to see Hikari naked and shivering in the corner blood covering her body and their father attempting to rape her.  Celena however clutched her head in agony and screamed entering a fit leaving Dilandau in her wake.  They were all shocked as they saw a mirror image of Hikari only male, trembling in fury at their father.  They were too stunned to stop him from drawing the sword from Allen's sheath and running it through their fathers gut.  The warrior then cradled his sobbing daughter protectively returning once more to his original form. 

The boys all cried, in their eyes Hikari murdered their father.  They didn't have a chance to form the love they formed with their father and so their love for him blinded them against her; especially the twins who were so fond of him.  They also didn't know Hikari had gone through this nearly every day so they had thought this a one off situation and blamed it on the drink.  Looking for someone to blame they saw now from their fathers prospective and saw her as a bastard girl living in their house who had the mordacity to kill their father for something that wasn't his fault; they couldn't blame Dilandau he was part of their mother who they loved whilst they never had a chance to love Hikari.

Celena and Allen however had now suspected that she was actually often raped by her father and slowly made sense of the situation; they had explained it to the eldest brother Yuhei, so he wouldn't behave rashly spoiling his chances as a knight.  They decided to keep this a secret as this would spoil Hikari's chances at marriage.  Celena, Allen and Yuhei now understood the situation did not hold it against her but there was till a slight inevitable hostility towards her from them as they had hardly a chance to form any love towards her like they did her late farther.  The twins however hated Hikari with passion as they did not understand what had been going on; they needed someone to blame for the hurt inflicted on them by the loss of their father, Sanosuke, still naïve followed their suit as any child would.

Hikari, not joyed by the death but rather relieved took the time to rebuild her bonds with her family however this opportunity was quickly refused by the younger three of the brothers who now treated her as an enemy with in the family rather than the stranger she was before.

------------------------End of Flashback--------------------------

'Dilandau?' she said uncertainly swallowing the lump in her throat. 'Father.'

Owari

People review please ^.^

::sniffles:: so sad (not the story!) I've been forced to go to ANOTHER wedding; my parents have to big a social life ^.^ anyways I have to go get ready for the old aunts pulling my cheek saying they remember me when I was yey *points to certain length high*  


	6. Drowning In Sorrow

Thanks once more for the lovely peeps who reviewed.

**Drowning in Sorrow**

Hikari lingered by the doorway awkwardly; what was she meant to do now? She had only seen Dilandau once before and knew nothing of him, only that he was a cold blooded ruthless tyrant.

'Do you want to sit down?' Dilandau motioned to the bed he was currently sitting on.  He was wearing a black silk pyjama suit that belonged to Celena but thankfully was not undeniably feminine.  Hikari walked silently over to the bed and sat down motionless.

Several minutes passed and Hikari fiddled with her silver locks whilst thinking of something, anything to say. 'Thank you, for saving me.' She said in a quite voice, still unsure of him, but wanting him to know she was grateful.

'How do you talk to you daughter, when you know relatively little about each other and you only have a limited time?'  Dilandau mused out loud.  Hikari still remained silent, she hadn't been expecting this and she didn't know what to do.

'Is it true? -The rumours about you being a psychotic, evil, villain from hell.' Hikari slapped her mouth suddenly realising the question was offensive.

'Most of it yes, some of it has probably been over exaggerated; but I doubt I'm a villain from hell, in fact that's what they call Van in Zaibach.  In a war both sides have reasons to fight and each side shows the other side to be the enemy; they did some pretty horrific things to Zaibach as well, you only have to go there now and see the hatred still there.  The people only followed Donkirk as he was the only ruler who presented vague hope at the time of reclaiming the lost desert lands that now belong to Austuria, but used to belong to Fanalia.  You only have to walk the streets to see hostile resentment of the people towards the forced monarchy, placed there by King Aston.  There are conspiracies everywhere you turn to overthrow them and to bring about war to Gaea once more.  This peace is fake; if they continue to ignore the problems they will grow larger and war will breed once more.'  Dilandau suddenly came out of his speech and realised that Hikari had nearly no idea what he was talking about.  'I suppose they try and keep you away from these conversations being a lady, right?'

'Yes, but I try to listen in, but I still don't know much about the war.' Hikari said hesitantly.

'It's too much to explain in one night, I'm not too sure of it myself.  I just fought to avoid being killed – that, and the thrill of it.' He smiled fondly in remembrance.  'My main reason for being here was to give you something.'  He walked over to Celena's dressing table, shadowed by Hikari.  After a few minutes of searching through Celena's abnormally large Jewellery bow, he came across what he was looking for; it was wrapped up carefully in blue tissue paper in the bottom left hand corner of the box away from prying eyes.  He took it out, shut the box and laid it out, still wrapped up in the dip of his palm.  'Although everyone else may want to forget me, and Celena was traumatised by my experiences…' he flinched slightly 'and tried to behave like they wanted her to; to try and makeup for my sins, even though she was nothing like me and disliked my life, she didn't want to forget me.'  He slowly unwrapped the tissue paper, revealing a crumpled silver chain with a tiny rounded, thin metal square on it.  'She hid it; if they found it she would have been in a hell of a lot of trouble.' He smirked mischievously.  He held it up and let it dangle by the chain, so Hikari could see it.

Hikari gently held still the swirling metal label of the dog tag with the palm of her hand.  With inscriptions on it that read; _Name: Dilandau Albatou, Nationality: Zaibachain, Regiment: Dragonslayers, Rank: Commanding Officer – Dragonslayers, Commanding Officer: General Adelphos. She turned the metal label over and ran her thumb along the smooth side, it appeared to be blank but in tiny writing engraved at the bottom it read, __May you keep the burning spirit of our nation alive._

He laughed as he saw her squint to try to read it. 'That was custom made for my dog tag.  It's slightly corny, but they felt it was fitting for me. I sure kept the 'burning spirit' alive, literally.' He beamed. 'Our regiment was the elite regiment.' He said pride in his voice, 'so everyone got a unique inscription.  Mind you the other inscriptions were hardly relevant to them as people; Gatti's was _May our nations rivers live on through your eyes – he had blue eyes you see.  We all made fun of Guimel like that we said __may the sheep of our nation live on through your hair.'  Dilandau was laughing hysterically, while Hikari stood there slightly confused. 'Oh!' He replied to her bemused expression, whilst he was still recovering, 'It's only funny if you saw Chesta's hair; it was like a fluffy white bush!' He continued to laugh, it wasn't so much the joke that got Dilandau laughing, in fact he had hit Dalet on the head for joking while they were being presented, it was the memory, the memory of his dragonslayers, his comrades, his friends.  He sighed, his tone becoming mush more serious and sombre, he whispered inaudibly under his breath 'I only wish I told them, that they were my friends.'_

'Will you put it on for me?' Hikari said shakily; she usually objected to this, but somehow this felt right. She moved her long silver tresses out of the way and Dilandau placed the chain over her head, moving around the back to clasp the ends of the chain together. Hikari moved over to the mirror, Dilandau still standing behind her, 'I love it' she smile fondling the necklace.  She didn't lie, it may not have been diamonds and rubies, it was sentimental, it was her heritage; who she was.  She stood silently in the mirror absorbing her reflection next to Dilandau's, he was exactly like her.  She ran her index finger across the bridge of her nose and lent over to Dilandau's reflection and did the same.  She kept her finger on the mirror and traced the outline of her eyes followed by the outline of his eyes; the colour was a perfect match, as was the shade of their hair; platinum silver.  They were identical, only the shape of his jaw and face were more cut and so looked more masculine.  'What can I give you of mine that won't end up as Celena's?' She turned around and faced him, kissing him quickly on the cheek, answering her own question, 'thank you for giving me a father for the first time in my life.' Her voice was serious yet filled with emotion.

'Mummy I had a nightmare.' Sanosuke whined through the door.  Both father and daughter glared at the door, not angry at Sanosuke but angry at their parting.

'Hold on a few minutes Sanosuke, I'm helping mum out of her dress; wait a couple of minutes before you come in after I leave.' Hikari lied flawlessly.  The two silently stared at each other; acknowledging and comprehending things that can't be spoken with words. The two attempted to smile as their gaze broke, but only succeeded in causing the other more hurt seeing their reunited unable to even curve their lips, even if they didn't mean it.

She walked towards the door ready to leave; eyes glistening with tears. 

'Wait' he called out grabbing her wrist as she turned to leave.

'Y..yes,' Hikari stuttered as she turned around.

'One more thing.' He grabbed the scissors from the dressing table and cut a lock of his silver hair and placed it in her palm.  He pushed her gently out of the room, Hikari no longer able to control her outburst of tears turned and hugged him tightly around the neck and ran quickly out of the door so distraught she was unable to look back.

'Thank you, Hikari for giving me a daughter, giving me a heart, allowing me to die knowing I no longer have to protect you.' He smiled absently at the closed door.

He looked at the mirror absorbing his image one more time. Now Dilandau wasn't the same as he was twenty seven years ago; although his appearance hadn't aged much, he had no longer put up the barriers he had in his youth, that he needed in order to lead in order to fight, to succeed; the same barriers that pushed him away from human contact.  Now they were gone no one would want him any more, now he had made sure the same thing didn't happen to his daughter, by knocking down her barriers for protection, he was no longer needed: he could die in peace, finally, rest.  He took in one deep breath and let his life slip out as he exhaled it.  Only Celena was left. Alone.

'Mummy?' Sanosuke asked through the door.

'Hold on coming.' Celena said collecting herself from the floor. She twisted the doorknob slowly, closing her eyes; she wasn't in the right frame of mind to deal with this.

'Mummy, why are you crying?' He asked innocently cocking his head to the side.  

'It's nothing really, come on let's go to sleep.' She whispered under her breath, unable to talk properly as tears threatened to spill. 

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'What?' Hikari crooked harshly at the closed door.

'Breakfast baka!' an angry voice responded through the door.  Hikari knew that could only be one person, Tsuyoshi.  She hid herself under her covers crawling in to a ball; she had spent the night crying and definitely didn't want to have *him* greeting her in the morning.  The thought of him made her bury herself deeper in her covers.  

She heard him slam the door violently as he entered the room.  She was thankful however it wasn't Sadhura, who would swear and yell at her rather than opting for silent rage like he did.  

Tsuyoshi quickly threw the covers off of Hikari, who was curled up in the foetal position, her hair covering her face and body. He grabbed a hand full of her silver hair pulling it up, causing her to look at him, then twisting it in his hand hoping to see her wince in pain; she didn't, she wasn't going to give him the satisfaction.

'Do you want to be late again? Get dressed now, or do I have to dress you?' Hikari could have sworn she saw his lips form in a brief smile.

She grabbed her white dress, with a light-grey corset and grey embroidery around the neckline and sleeve of ivy leaves that she had previously laid out the night before. She looked at him impatiently.

'What?' He snapped.

'Are you going to wait outside? I do have to change you know?'

'What are you accusing me of?' He said walking out knowing there was no time to argue.

She quickly changed in to the dress, still wearing the dog tag from last night.  She ran towards the door quickly combing her hair on the way, throwing the brush on the bed as she approached the door.  

'About time.' He groaned, grabbing her hand, leading her down the corridors and stairs, breathing heavily as he ran: an all too familiar scene for Hikari.  

'You're lucky we made on time Baka.' The two sat down in the two free seats, Tsuyoshi sitting next to Yuhei, Hikari next to Sadhura, Celena and Sanosuke sitting opposite her.  Hikari groaned as she noticed Yusuke was sitting on the other side of Sadhura.

Yusuke leaned back noticing her gaze on him. 'I came to your door but you were still sleeping-' he abruptly ended, standing up seeing his mother and father taking their seats, showing breakfast was going to start.  Hikari quickly followed everyone's lead and quickly stood up, albeit a few seconds late as usual.

Everyone sat down and began to eat in silence.

'Hikari that's quite an unusual necklace you have on.' Van commented noticing Hikari's dog tag which he knew you could only get if you served in the army.

'Thank you, it was a gift.  The soldier wanted to forget his experiences in the destiny wars, but I didn't want anyone to forget someone who had fought so courageously, so he gave me his dog tag and I treasure it above everything else.'  She wasn't lying she was just darting around the truth.

'Did you acquire it here in Fanalia?'  Van anted to determine which side she felt fought courageously or in other words which side she thought was right.

'Yes I did.' Again not lying, simply not stating the whole truth

Hikari discretely covered the necklace with her hand, pretending to idly twist the chain; in reality this did no good, the elder members of the table already new what it was, Celena's usually stoic face pained at the loss of it, her brothers had a strong suspicion and for Yusuke it was only a thought that crossed his mind.

'I wonder what soldier it is, perhaps I may know him?' Van stated, in between calm sips of diluted morning Vino.

'I beg your majesties pardon if this may seem rude, but since my encounter with your majesty his interest has been held more raptly by the original occupant of my necklace, more so than its wearer.' Hikari was immediately cursing the words as they had come out of her mouth, although no one would say anything, her words were far to forward, and definitely offensive, even though they had been sugar-coated.

'I told you Van. When you look at the girl you spend more time thinking about Dilandau than her: and if you really think that's his, which I doubt, she even told you that you do so herself.'  Hitomi chided under her breath while unfolding the napkin and placing it on her lap.

Van opened his mouth to argue, but found she was right as usual, and simply sat the rest of the breakfast in silence; as did every one else.

Hikari shifted nervously in her seat.  She couldn't bring herself to eat under her family's heated gaze.  Even the king's usual pleasant demeanour was off, she looked towards Yusuke, who simply adverted his gaze away from her, not angry but rather bewildered and disappointed of the response, and Van after all was his father; the only friendly smile she could see came from Hitomi, which didn't comfort her much as she seemed to be able to find the good in everyone.

She fiddled with her fork moving the scraps of fried meat in her plate; she raised it to her mouth and looked once more in Yusuke's direction only to find he was avoiding her gaze.  She dropped the fork and it fell on the marble floor echoing continuously in the hall.

'I'm sorry,' she whispered under her breath running out of the nearest of one of the many archways surrounding the hall.

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Hikari found her self once more by the edge of the pond once more.  She stared morosely in to its crystal blue depths, drops of her tears joining the water, rippling outwards, fading and finally ceasing to exist.

"Why is it destiny that I always end up here?  Maybe it's a sign that I should jump in and rid myself of the pain this world has caused me.  I grow up hated and abused and I still don't break, heavens knows that every other girl probably would have, living in a house of enemies." She sighed wistfully, "And if that's not enough, fate plays a cruel joke –it gives me false hope.  I get saved, and I think every thing will be alright; but now I'm public enemy number one –So? I can deal with that, I have Dilandau to rely on; but then he goes thinking I'll be alright on my own, and so I try to lean on Yusuke- and now I disgust him: Hell I disgust myself.  I thought everything would be fine, I was given new possibilities; I started to dream again –and it got taken away from me."  She stared teary eyed at her reflection for several minutes, "Father you were wrong," several more drops of water joined their predecessors, "I can't do it on my own." 

Again there was silence as she stared at her reflection. 

'Nice show.' 

Hikari turned around at the clapping, quickly wiping away her tears and turning her nose in defiance.

'Sadhura.'

'Sorry if I wasn't prince Yusuke; but then again I'm not easily fooled by crocodile tears.'  He edged uncomfortably close to her causing Hikari to step back, her footing at the edge of the pond.  He smiled sarcastically his eyes narrow, 'Oh poor Hikari! Hasn't fate gravely wronged her? My heart bleeds! Haven't you ever thought that maybe the problem wasn't with us, but with you? Bastard girl.' He spat out the last two words grabbing Hikari's chain forcing her head in his direction, the chain cutting painfully in to her neck causing her to whimper. 'That's right Dilandau's bitch, I've seen your necklace, you murderous witch! You're just like your father aren't you?' He shook her shoulders vigorously, 'Are you going to bloody answer me?'  He slapped her across the face, still shaking her, his hand encasing the metal label of her necklace.

'I'd rather be like my father than like yours.' She spat in his face.  He quickly punched her in the side of her jaw, blood trickling out of her mouth.  He visibly shook with fury.  He stood there still with rage and slapped her once more relieving his aggravation.  His smile returned once more.  He ran his fingers through Hikari's hair in an almost motherly gesture, gently stroking her silver locks his face in a calm smile.

'That's right Hikari, I forgot!' His voice calm and almost soothing, 'You like to hurt people don't you?  You like to see their pain, them suffering.'  He moved impossibly close to her until his voice became just a whisper, 'You like to watch them cry, hear them scream. You like to take away what they love the most.  You like to hurt!'  His lips were almost breathing words in to hers.  Hikari's heart was racing; she didn't know how to defend herself how was he going to hurt her? What was he going to do?

He licked the blood from her face out to her mouth deliberately slowly, stinging her wound. Hikari immediately pushed herself off of him falling backwards in to the lake.  

The weight of the many lairs of her dress, and even her hair, immediately pulled her body down beneath the surface.  She kicked a few times to try and collect her self in the water, but the movement of her legs made no difference to her position, as they were smothered by the heavy damp fabric that pushed her down.  Her strokes and kicks became frenzied as she realised she was retreating away from the sunlight and the world became hazy splotches of colour.  With an outburst of energy she tried to overcome the weight and broke to the surface, unable to breathe or even cry for help as water immediately gushed out of her mouth, frantically chocking on water as her body fell back down, still deprived of air. As she sank back down she used the weight of her arms in downwards thrust to propel her head out of the encasing water once more, where she gasped for air her voice hoarse.

'Sad…hel...p.' her head was continuously being dragged down under the wait of the water.  She watched him desperately as he smiled and walked off.  She was once re-immersed in the choking liquid, swallowing vast quantities of it, opening her mouth only to find more enter in its place. She finally managed to reach up to the mud edging, trying to hoist her self back on to the ponds surroundings only to find something tugging her back.  Her hand slipped on the edge as she was unable to pull herself up. Hikari tried vainly to swim in a direction away from the weeds hoping they would grow taught and break under the pressure only to find that she had swam away from the edging of the pond.  Her lungs began to ache, starved of the oxygen and unable to fuel her movements she tried one last time and reached down to her ankles to try and free herself from the weeds.  The water became heavier on her as she sunk to the bottom, finding she didn't have the strength to untangle her self, she gave up.  Her body no longer released bubbles of oxygen, her sight grew hazy and she encompassed the welcoming black.  The struggle was over, she lost and now the water was gently lulling her to sleep.  This is what she wanted most; to escape her pains.

~Owari

(No it's not the end!!!!!!!!!!) Please review ^.^


	7. Reflections in Water

Thanks again to the lovely reviewing people, and everyone who complemented my writing style, I just hope it gets better with age and practise as I am a relatively new and young author, but thanks for the encouragement anyway.  Now lady ice phoenix what's this I hear about giving my muses chocolate???? I don't have any muses but you can give the chocolate to me ^.^

**Reflections in Water**

Yusuke leaned against the white marble pillars of the archway that surrounded the dining room.  He wasn't angry at Hikari for her response; in fact he found her forwardness attractive.  His brow was creased in confusion; he didn't know what he felt.

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Hikari's senses were no longer functional.  She was alive, but was no longer able to interact with her environment.  Her mind was still conscious, but it was as if her essence was trapped inside her, and in each mind numbing, void of a moment she could feel it slipping away; like sand from an hour glass.  She was in a realm in between death and life; it was like a dream where you are nothing and your surroundings are nothing, nothing in the true sense of the word, not that everything was empty and everything was black –that's something; this was nothing.  Yet through nothing she felt herself; her true self not her body, herself, but she knew she was there but that didn't mean she became something.  Slowly even that 'knowledge' faded when she no longer felt herself, she would no longer feel the 'nothing' she was, she would be dead.  She would pass on to something.  Dead.  

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He wasn't disappointed with her, or maybe he was partly disappointed with the response.  Whatever it was it was a negative feeling, not very strong, not even enough to even have a vague feeling of dislike towards her; he just felt he needed to sort out whatever it was he felt before he next saw her.

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Nothing. Disappearing.  Dying.

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She was being forward, she told him the truth.  That was it; he wasn't disappointed at the response, at her, but at the truth. The way she said it was laced in emotion she had always been so careful to hide.  She felt neglected? Alone? Hurt?  She was so careful to hide it before and he had always sensed something; like when he found her crying, she had been slapped, she was hurt.  Her outstanding smiles and glowing radiance nearly made him forget that she was aching inside, about something.  On reflection he was annoyed with her, he loved her –well he thought he did, it was rather soon, well he definitely deeply cared for her and she didn't see his affection? No maybe it wasn't anger it was frustration, he hadn't succeeded in making her feel loved.  Frustration that his love wasn't enough.

He stood cursing himself for her current depressed state.  He was suffering with the misinterpretation of her emotions; as she had been suffering for misinterpreting his.  He felt his love was inadequate.  She had felt he no longer loved her; she felt no more.

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Escaping.  Only a drop of her fleeting soul.  Can we call her dead yet? No, not yet still dying –but barely.

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But there was something else; the truth was her truth, and therefore her pain, however some of it was the evident truth.  He knew what his father thought of Hikari, although he tried not to judge her by it; He saw of her and thought of Dilandau.  He knew his father couldn't avoid it; it was part of his 'soldiers instinct' but is caused him hurt as it drove Hikari away.  

He understood now; he needed to show Hikari that he cared, that he would be there for her.  His negative emotions had derived from her grief, if that subsided than the empty pit in his stomach would disappear. 

His emotions sorted, his head felt clearer, he became sure of himself once more.  Yusuke ran towards the palace gardens, towards the lake, where he often saw her standing idly to pass time. 

He stood by the lake, his head darting around, looking for any sign of Hikari.  His movements became relaxed as he walked over to the mud edging of the lake, in one of the four clearings in the low metal decorative skirting.  Yusuke stared directly in to the calm blue depths, the light shining off the surface like glitter.  He stepped back taking a deep breath, his gaze falling on the mud edging.  He crouched down as he saw a hand print, and finger marks that clawed over the edge of the surface.  He thought it was unusual and his brows knotted in confusion, and stood back up again.  He stared at the lake one more time, as if to capture the scenery in his gaze.

As he turned around, his legs collapsed beneath him, and he was forced to balance himself in a crawling position, his head once more hanging over the mud edging.  His pupils dilated as he felt his mental self was elevated to a different dimension.

He was standing behind Hikari in the garden by the lake, where he was standing moments ago.  He called her name; she didn't even stir.  He walked closer to her and placed her hand on her shoulder to turn her over only to find his hand went straight through her.  He waved his hand over his face, pinching it to see if it was real; it was, why couldn't he touch her then?  He saw her talking to her self, although he couldn't hear her, he saw her face was etched in sorrow, tears streaming endlessly down her cheeks.

'Hikari?'

'Hikari, what's wrong? Turn around please! Hikari?'

She turned around.  His face lit up in a smile, he walked over to her arms wide open to hug her; she faced him, looking directly at him with a look of scorn on her face.

'What is it Hikari? Have I done anything wrong?'

He saw her gaze move slightly, and turned around over his shoulder to see Sadhura moving towards her, whilst he had previously standing behind him.  Deciding they could not, see, hear or feel him, he stepped back to observe them.

He stopped when he was standing opposite her, his face mocking.  Hikari spat at him.  He shook her violently, punching, and then slapping her.  Yusuke lunged forward, only to find once more he went straight through them.  He regained his balance at the other side of them, seething silently, taking in what was to happen.  He watched Sadhura's cruelty turn in to affection as his features softened and he caressed the side of her face; Hikari looked extremely unsettled and stepped back further.  Sadhura only stepped closer, now the distance between them was even smaller than before.  He watched as a smile crept upon the blonde's lips as he licked the trail of blood up her chin.  This caused Hikari to push away falling backwards in the lake.  Yusuke ran forwards to catch her; only to find her slip again through his fingers.  He redirected his gaze to Sadhura, who stood there watching a smile on his face.

He looked desperately back on the water looking for any sign of Hikari, knowing he couldn't help her.  Finally the surface of the water broke and he saw Hikari, choking on water, trying miserably to keep her head above the water, screaming, pleading hopelessly for Sadhura's help only to find as a response he walked off laughing.  

Yusuke couldn't take it any more he jumped in trying to save her; he saw her dress blanket her legs rendering them a dead weight along with the many petticoats of the dress, pulling her down.  She frantically, with only her arms available tried to break her way to the top.  Yusuke swam towards her trying to grip around her waist, only once more to find it failed.

'Well done, clever girl, I love you' Yusuke blurted out, his voice toned with happiness and sorrow; but mainly desperation.

He watched her as she triumphed in partially pulling herself up with the edging of the lake.  His smile faded instantaneously as he watched her body slip down as if something was holding her back.  He watched her swim back down, trying to block her way knowing that it would be harder for her to come back up to the surface; why was she swimming down anyway? He saw her tug at the grassy-weeds that managed to find a way of wrapping them selves around her ankle. She couldn't manage it; she had very little strength left in her body.  She swam away from the bank, Yusuke watching, tears falling from his eyes; he saw her chances for survival growing bleaker as she swam towards the middle of the lake hoping to break them off.  It hurt him to watch her but he needed to see what happened, if she survived.  He moved towards her; she stopped.  She stopped moving, she still had energy left in her, although most people wouldn't, she just gave up.  He saw the image waver in front of him, but just as it left he saw a faded of her, naked, back turned walking away, fading in to nothing.

His body awoke with a jolt, his hands trembling beneath him, his longs demanding, gasping for breath as if he were the one to have drowned.  He panted heavily over the edging and saw a single silver long hair partially covered in mud; he stood up and walked backwards away from the edging shaking his head in disbelief.  He looked down at the floor beneath him momentarily; he suddenly looked up running and finally jumping in to the lake.  He swam to the bottom of the lake hurriedly, knowing exactly where to go.  He saw Hikari lying at the bottom of the lake, her long silver hair floating up forming an Aurora around her, the fabric of her white dress slowly lifting at the end; most strikingly her scarlet red eyes remained open, they had not even rolled to the side like one would expect but stared straight ahead.  He encircled his left arm around her waist and used his other arm and legs to swim back up.  He was pulled back, and remembered the weeds; he swam even harder breaking them, freeing her.  He hoisted himself with one arm to the surface and quickly wrapped the now free arm around Hikari's body bringing her up.  

He lay her down on the path way.  She didn't stir; she didn't breathe.  How long had she been down there?  He sighed exasperatingly, slamming his fist on the floor beneath him, causing his knuckles to bleed.  He immediately started to pump her heart in rhythm with his with his hands; he parted her purple lips and breathed in to them.  He continued this with fierce vigour and determination five times.  He lifted his head and slapped her across the face hoping to rekindle her senses; nothing. He continued to try to resuscitate her, slapping her once more, on the verge of giving up.

Hikari winced at his slap this time.  Her body racked as it choked out all the water within her.  He sat her up supporting her upper body, as he watched all the lake water being pushed by her coughs out of her lungs.  She took in one deep breath, and panted slowly, collapsing back in to unconsciousness.  Yusuke quickly leaned over her body to check her state, and found her to be breathing softly; she was exhausted.  Her essence had flooded back to her like water that had been collecting behind a dam that has just broken.

He sighed in relief and sat back down, half crying and half laughing out of joy.

~Owari

Oh what's Yusuke going to do to Sadhura???????????

REVIEW 


	8. Sunset

Hey I'm back from the dead (but not for long) did you miss me? –wait don't answer that.  You know what they say 'absence makes the heart grow fonder' either that or you just completely forget and resume with your daily life.  I have taken a break from my hectic life and I wrote this; while I was meant to be revising (yuk revision, nasty word!!!).  So here I go.

P.S. I am making this up as I go along so at some point I will re-revise the whole story making it longer, better and hopefully perfect.  There will be a big twist so soon from now and I can barely contain it…Oooh the excitement!

Disclaimer; I did not own Escaflowne in the beginning of the story I am now near the middle and I still don't own Escaflowne, are you surprised??

Oh yeah I just have to say while writing this I was listening to heart attack by Darren Hayes (I just love that song ^.^)

**Sunset**

****

Hikari was lying drenched and lifeless over the black silk sheets on the four poster bed she was lying on. Her white and grey dress clung to her body, the bodice opaque without the protection of the several petticoats which kept her legs safely chaste.  The white frail limp body lying on the bed was suffocated by the enormity of the room around her.  The room was a large relatively narrow oval shape.  The walls were painted black causing the line between the black carpet and the wall to blur; this would usually made the room look smaller despite the fact one could easily fit a playing field in it. In the centre of the room was placed a large solid mahogany bed with sheer, translucent silver drapes, which matched the edging on the black curtains and the top of the wall.  Immediately opposite the bed were two large glass doors neither unbroken nor surrounded by any frames.  However where one would logically expect a balcony to be placed there was nothing, just a drop.

Almost fading in to the background of the room stood an impatient prince leaning against the corner pole of his four poster bed.  He frowned as he took in the girl's complexion.  Her already porcelain skin, became if possible paler with an unnatural blue tint to it, which held in contrast to the blood red rims encircling her eyes, his eyes brought to a rest at the her previously raspberry colored lips which now possessed a purple hue to them.  Her body lay lifeless and emotionless in front of him; he couldn't even see the gentle rise and fall of her chest.  

Yusuke grunted impatiently as he awaited for the white and green, clad maids to enter the room to attend the scarcely living girl.  Whilst in his hostile anger towards the incompetence of the palace maids, his mind drifted to the one thing he hated the most right now; Sadhura.  He reached for the nearest thing he could muster a marble paper weight and threw it against his frameless oval mirror, clenching his jaw in a tight rage as he did so.  He understood nothing, to little of what was happening and he hated it.

'You know you'll get seven years bad luck for that, don't you?' a mocking voice reverberated through his room.

If within human limits Yusuke's anger and frustration doubled by ten folds.  He swung a precisely aimed fist at Sadhura's face only to find it was caught by the boy's shadow, who was standing behind his briefly older brother, whose figure silhouetted his perfectly.

'Sadhura' Yusuke spat bitterly as if he was forcing the words out of his throat like venom.

'Tsuyoshi' the longer haired boy smirked, introducing himself; however the princes eyes never left the older twin.

'I suppose the baka told you ne?'

'*Hikari* hasn't regained consciousness yet, especially after you nearly killed her!' He replied in a hoarse menacing whisper under his breath.

'Nearly Killed who?' The voice of the eldest brother rang through the room, who was clutching a writhing Sanosuke by his wrist; the young boy screaming protests against visiting his sister all the while.  Finally the customary silent Celena entered the room, gasping quietly as she took in her regal surroundings, shock brainwashing her slight apprehension for her daughter.

The green eyed boy opened his mouth in reply but closed it deciding it wouldn't do good to accuse the smirking twin without proof.

'The prince was complaining that the gardener nearly killed the Lilies that Hikari likes so much. Right your highness?' the last sentence came out of the older twin's voice, dripping with sarcasm.

He clenched his jaw tightly in reply and nodded his head in confirmation.

Celena briskly walked over to the bed placing he hand on the sleeping girl's forehead.

'She's burning up.'

'I know I sent for those useless maids over ten minutes ago.' Yusuke barked forgetting his usual pleasant demeanor.

The ashen haired women immediately covered Hikari's revealing wet bodice with her shawl and began to rub the soles of her feet in order to bring the color back in to the girls face.

The doors swung open with a thud revealing a trail of maids in white simple linen dresses with forest green fringing. Yusuke took the opportunity to drag Sadhura out of the room by the sleeve of his shirt.  Tsuyoshi swiftly followed but was blocked by Yuhei, who placed his arm out giving him a warning glance; he slowly guessed what probably happened.

Yusuke pushed Sadhura violently against the wall away from the exposure of the glass door and violently punched him in the jaw.   The shocked twin wiped the trail of blood running down his chin.  The prince grabbed him by the collar, staring the older boy in the eye.

'If you ever hurt her again, you won't be alive for me to put you on trail. Do you understand?'  With that he dropped the boy leaving him to get up himself and walked back in to his room, controlling his urge to beat the boy in to a bloody pulp.

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Ruby eyes fluttered open as the suns golden-pink rays swept across her face.  The world around her was a slight blur and she sat herself up trying to raging her vision.  When finally her surroundings cleared she gasped at the beauty of the room; the black walls were made spectacular by the colored rays of the setting sun painting the walls in their rainbow of colours. 

After the initial shock wore down, she realized that this wasn't her room; her moment of hesitation caused the morning s memories to come flooding back to her, causing her to clutch her head in mental pain.  She silently slipped out of bed and realized she was no longer wearing her dress but a simple light blue cotton one.  Her hand traveled over to her neckline and she gasped as she realized her silver chain was no longer there.  She immediately quashed down her fears of panic and decided that someone probably placed it somewhere in the room.  She stepped on to the soft carpeted floor and walked briskly to the edge of the room, finally arriving to mahogany dressing table.  She looked up at it noticing the mirror was smashed and only a few shards remained clinging to the wall.  She followed her eyes back down to the carpet and noticed several diamond liked daggers of glass decorating the floor playing with the red evening light.  The light she noticed was merged with a red sticky substance, her blood.  Hikari noted that her feet were indeed covered with scratches; she ignored them, too confused to register her pain. 

Her gaze simply swept across the room once more; a sense of familiarity hit her.   It was his room, it was absorbed by the warm-forest smell he radiated, this seemed to calm her a bit.  As her scarlet eyes scanned the room she noticed a tiny silver gleam; her necklace.  She tip-toed gently over to the corner of the room, stepping back as she noticed a black-clad sleeping figure encompassed by the shadows.  She pulled carefully at the chain only to find that it didn't move.  Her eyes wandered up and she noticed angry green ones string directly in her own vino-coloured ones.

Owari

I know you all wanted to see Sadhura SUFFER but don't worry he'll get his just desserts later…hehe I know what's going to happen and you don't ^.^ ( I am so immature!!!)

As usual review ^^

P.S. if you have time go read my other story 'Love wears blood red.'


	9. Wings of an angel

**Author's Notes; ****(you may want to skip this it's unusually long for me and completely irrelevant.)**

Finally a new chapter! YEY ^. ^   You may be wondering what took me so long, so I shall explain.  I had EXAMS!!! Ick, but not just school exams but a GCSE I was taking a year early (I have another one coming up :( ) Also to make matters worse I was suffering form writers block (aaah!!!) –which hasn't quite gone away yet. Plus (yep there's a whole list of excuses!) I've had so much to do; like yesterday I went to the Queens Jubilee (it was so boring!...but I was standing next to a nice lady from Michigan so we made conversation! –Like you care!)…so in conclusion I am so tired from standing up for seven hours in a crowd, listening to music that could send me to sleep. I have no alternative but to stay at home and write; as it is about the only thing I'm capable of now.  

**Disclaimer;**

I think most people reading this have probably guessed I don't own Escaflowne.  However they may be that odd person here or there (who owns some film company and thinks they can buy the idea from me) who hasn't quite grasped the fact that I DON'T OWN ESCAFLOWNE!!!!!!! 

**P.S ****(These are just answers for people who reviewed chapter 8 as I have just started doing this and unless you all find it annoying I'll probably do this fir every chapter.)**

My e-mail account is being temperamental and I do want to reply to the wonderful people who took their time to review my story (I am honored.) So if you didn't review or you really don't care I suggest you skip this bit ^. ^ (but it does matter to me…which is why it's here –I'm such a big procrastinator!!) I did this bit first so you don't look at the task bar and think I have written a lot more on the actual story than I really have ^.^

**Rad; Aw I have a talent for writing? That's sweet! (It really helps my esteem, even if it was just polite!!) (Geez that sounds mushy coming from my mouth…or hand as I'm actually typing not speaking 0.o).  About Yusuke beating Sadhura's face in…well you just have to wait…^^.**

**Lady Ice Phoenix; I love your reviews; they are always so amusing to read.  About your muses disagreeing with you, feed them sugar and when they're on a high knock them out with tranquilizer darts and then you only have to deal with the voices inside your head (damn! I forgot that was just me with the voices inside my head!)**

**Phoenix****; Hmm I wonder what you'll say about this seriously overdue chapter. I do agree, not my best work, but every story has its highs and lows; also it's one of those chapters which are boring to read but are unfortunately needed ^.^**

**Unknown-wisdom; I changed your view on next gen stories? Wow! I'm really flattered (I'm going all giddy inside.) yes she practices fencing…but as usual your going to have to wait to find out if she uses it.**

**Soap; Thank you!!! And I have finally written more.**

**MysticMoon; Oh Sadhura in a world of Pain…would I do that to him =)**

**Dragon fairy; I would have Yusuke beat the crap out of Sadhura BUT he needs to be alive and angry for later…**

**Amieva; wait and see…wait and see…**

**Now finally on to the story…**

**The Wings of an Angel**

****

Yusuke stood up briskly, the silver chain still in his hand.  His mineral green eyes were set alight with something Hikari couldn't quite place.  Her own face took on a mild wave of fear.  

Realizing the significance of the necklace in his hand she stepped back from him, creating a gap between them.  He however, quickly closed the gap and stepped forward.  The necklace dangled in the grasp of the Princes left hand, whilst his right hand came forward grabbing Hikari's head from behind in rough but passionate kiss.

The sun had now completely sunk beneath the sky, leaving a dark blue expanse which was set ablaze by the sky's candles and the great white orb.  The moons faint and ghostly ray's entered the room through the open glass balcony doors and gave Hikari an angelic aurora, whilst the wind gently caressed her face. Her silver long silver hair, free of the lady-like constrictions placed upon it, danced in the wind binding the two unsure lovers together.

For sake of breath, the two finally parted. His sooty black hair lay in tussled bangs over his intense green eyes, providing protection from his stare.  As always he stood clad in back, the white of the moon accenting areas of his face, the rest lay hidden in mystery.  Hikari looked down, finding a small blush rising to her cheeks.  She noticed the small meek chain lay strung across her neck; she sighed wistfully –a simple trinket had been the cause of the torrent of emotions and a simple kiss had silenced them all.

'Are you angry?' she asked, looking at the carpet, unable to face his powerful gaze.

'Why? Are you feeling guilty?' His usual smirk adorned his features, only to be met with a playful glare.

'Alright then if you must know, only concerned and I guess slightly angry that you haven't told me everything; but I get the feeling you're not going to tell me now right?'

Hikari nodded her head in response.

'I guess I haven't told you everything either.' He smiled walking over to the open glass doors.  Hikari followed silently.  Yusuke leaned over the edge string directly down at the vertical drop.  Hikari stepped back, finding the unprotected drop, slightly daunting.

Yusuke suddenly whirled around placing both of his hand s over Hikari's arms, gazing directly in to her startled vino eyes.

'You nearly died today, you gave up on life.  I wasn't enough to keep you here was I?'

'You are, but-' she paused 'you don't-' she broke eye contact and looked to the side, although she was unable to move as she was still in his grip.

He gently lifted her tilted head with his left hand, so he could again look in to her red velvet eyes.  Yusuke gently caressed the side of her face with his thumb, the sensation sending excited shivers down Hikari's spine.

'I do love you.  You were going to say I didn't right?' he asked uncertainly.

She silently nodded in response.

'But I do love you, at least I think I do, it's different to everything else I've felt and' he paused looking directly at her 'it hurts.'

Hikari narrowed her eyes trying to find the meaning behind his words.

Yusuke dropped his hand back down to his sides defeated and turned back around to the open doors, staring at the night sky, his back facing the silver haired girl.  'It hurts because I can't tell you because I'm afraid you don't feel the same way.'

She walked up to his back placing her arms around his neck, 'I think I love you too.'  She placed her head in the crook of his neck watching the stars sparkle in the night sky. '-and I'll tell you what I think you want to know, but I don't think you'll love me anymore.'

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The two sat peacefully on the black silk sheets of the bed neither attempting to talk.

Hikari opened and closed her mouth several times, before any sound came out, 'I'm not a…I'm not…not a virgin' she tripped on the words, tears falling freely from her eyes as she did so.  'I was raped.'  She drew up her knees, hugging them with her arms, burying her arms in them out of shame.

'Who, was it?' Yusuke chocked out.  At this Hikari's body racked withy painful sobs, seeing the reaction the prince embraced the girl in a warm hug holding her until all the pain melted away.  The answers he had did not fit together, and the millions of questions he needed to know could never be asked.

'It's not your fault. I still feel the same.' He whispered breaking the silence which engulfed the room.  He stood up from the bed, his body stiffened while his muscles tensed; he slowly clenched his jaw.  The cold air enveloped Hikari, in the absence of the boy's heat.  He walked over to the glass window doors and opened them so each door lay flat against the black wall.  'I haven't told you everything about myself either.'  He stepped wordlessly out from the bedroom floor out on to the empty space which should have been a balcony. Hikari, who had been sitting down confused, ran towards the open window-doors in a blind panic.  

Silhouetted by the light of the moon a lean figure stood hovering in the open expanse of space.  He silently stepped back in to his room.

Hikari stepped back away from him, a hand clasped over her mouth in shock.  He was still wearing his matt black trousers, but his black shirt lay tattered across his bare, well-defined chest.  Most magnificent of all were the four pure white wings that sprouted from his back.  They emitted a glow whiter than that of the moon and continued on for an eternity.  His face was poised in an opposite direction from the girl hanging proudly in the air; his cold arrogant expression guarding his vulnerability he felt in regards to his identity.

The platinum haired girl was still consumed with shock.

'I'm a draconian.' He said looking down at the shorter girl.

'You're an angel.' A soft smile graced her lips, and she reached out to touch the wings of the boy to make sure he was real. She stroked the pure white feathers to the length of their expanse, whilst doing so the prince caught her wrist and brought her hand back from the tip of his wings to his chest, where he placed it above his heart beat. Finally he bent down and kissed the palm of her hand and scooped the blushing girl in to his arms, carrying her out in to the night sky.

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Leaving her with a kiss outside her balcony window, Hikari slowly wondered towards her bed, stroking the curtains gently as she did so.

Owari

What did you think? It's a bit short, but then again this felt like an appropriate place to end.  I think that was fluff, and I'm not too keen on it but this is romance/angst (you have yet to await the angst!!!! *muhahahahahahahahahahaha* -sorry I had to do that!) It did not do much for the plot but it was a necessary chapter…it does get better…promise!! O.K got lots of revision to do

Ja Ne

-The Backwards Angel

(please review ^^)


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